


hitting the rocks (grasping the sand)

by my_infinite_variety



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, American Sign Language, Angst with a Happy Ending, Beach House, Conflict Resolution, Emotionally Repressed Sam Winchester, F/M, Lawyer Sam Winchester, Minor Castiel/Dean Winchester, Ocean, Rich Sam Winchester, TheirLoveWasReal, previous friends with benefits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:20:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29626230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/my_infinite_variety/pseuds/my_infinite_variety
Summary: Sam escapes his monotonous life, overwhelmed by the expectations that come with his job and loving someone so deeply.Eileen doesn't let him run for long.
Relationships: Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: Their Love Was Real: a Destiel & Saileen Fanworks Challenge





	hitting the rocks (grasping the sand)

Sam can feel her at his back as surely as he feels the salty ocean air on his face, in his hair, and he wonders if she’s here to take his fragile heart and crush it between her fingers. She could, he muses. 

She would wreck him, as easy as breathing. Take the carefully constructed parts of his life and crush them beneath her boot with only words, because Sam needs her more than he’s ever needed anyone or anything. More than the family he ditched back in Kansas. More than the job he hates. More than the money he can’t bring himself to spend. 

He turns around, hands prying themselves from the deck railing to sign. “How did you know I was here?”

“Dean,” she replies, eyes as open and bright as always, but inquisitive. He feels like she’s looking him over and seeing every flaw. His hair is stiff with salt and unbrushed. He’s sure his shirt is stained. He’s not a pretty sight, but he supposes that he’s owed a little unkemptness after years of suits and perfectly styled hair. 

“Of course.” He barks out a bitter laugh, shaking his head. When he’d called Dean out of the blue for the first time in over ten years asking for advice, he was surprised to find his brother married with kids and at a point in his life where he was stable both emotionally and financially. Dean had been the one to suggest a break from work and time to clear his head. Sam, however, hadn’t even considered that Dean would give him up that easily to the source of his pain. “And he didn’t even think to tell me first. Sounds like Dean.”

Her face hardens. His quickness to anger and blame had always been something that drove a wedge between them, even when their nights together were little more than pleasure, fumbling sign language between his sheets, and kisses at the door. “Don’t start with me, Sam Winchester.”

He laughs again, darker this time, meets her eyes head-on and realizes why that was a mistake in the first place. Her brown eyes are as easy to fall into as they were the day Sam met her. The awful sounding noise dragging itself from his chest cuts itself short and suddenly Sam comes to the realization that they’re standing there together in the open air, nothing to protect each other from themselves. 

Sam’s suit, tie, and shined shoes are missing, so often used as a shield to protect himself from the reality of his profession and jagged relationships. Even she looks softer, her boots missing and replaced by worn sneakers. She’s wearing shorts instead of jeans, and her usual plaid button-up is swapped in for one of his old short-sleeved henleys. She looks like she belongs on the beach, walking next to him in the sand or leaning against the railing of the deck. She looks like he’d dreamed her during the nights when she’d leave late and leave him with a deep, searching kiss at his front door.

But it's now, not then, and she has a toothbrush on his sink and she keeps a pair of shoes in his closet. She takes his clothes home and doesn't bring them back; has no intention to. His life is filled with work, responsibility, and the next opportunity he can see her, or see a text from her on his phone, or hear her laugh aloud, carefree and alive. She is the sun his life revolves around and the anger he's been harboring melts awake.

Sam brings his hand up, curling it into a fist and making a tight circle just below his collar bones. Eileen’s face softens and she smiles at him, mirroring the sign back to him before holding out her hand. He takes it and they stand together in the sunlight, the wind rustling their hair and the waves crashing against the sand out beyond their reach.

All is well again. 


End file.
